Does age really matter? Recall of information presented to newly referred patients with cancer.
OBJECTIVE
To examine age- and age-related differences in recall of information provided during oncology consultations.


METHODS
Two hundred sixty patients with cancer diagnosed with heterogeneous cancers, seeing a medical or radiation oncologist for the first time, participated in the study. Patients completed questionnaires assessing information needs and anxiety. Recall of information provided was measured using a structured telephone interview in which patients were prompted to remember details physicians gave about diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. Recall was checked against the actual communication in audio-recordings of the consultations.


RESULTS
Recall decreased significantly with age, but only when total amount of information presented was taken into account. This indicates that if more information is discussed, older patients have more trouble remembering the information than younger ones. In addition, recall was selectively influenced by prognosis. First, patients with a poorer prognosis recalled less. Next, the more information was provided about prognosis, the less information patients recalled, regardless of their actual prognosis.


CONCLUSIONS
Recall is not simply a function of patient age. Age only predicts recall when controlling for amount of information presented. Both prognosis and information about prognosis are better predictors of recall than age. These results provide important insights into intervention strategies to improve information recall in patients with cancer.
Jansen
Jesse
J
Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research, Utrecht, The Netherlands. j.jansen@nivel.nl
Butow
Phyllis N
PN
van Weert
Julia C M
JC
van Dulmen
Sandra
S
Devine
Rhonda J
RJ
Heeren
Thea J
TJ
Bensing
Jozien M
JM
Tattersall
Martin H N
MH
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011379:Prognosis; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D055815:Young Adult